Swiveling door-hanger



C. P; AGARD. SWIVELING DOOR HANGER.

Inz/enor @haras Fyfar UNITED STATES PATENT v OFFICE.

CHARLES F. AGARD, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.`

SWIVELING DOOR-HANGER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 580,590, dated April 13, 1897. Application led May 26, 1896. Serial No. 593,192. (No model.)

.To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. AGARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in thev county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Swiveling Door- Han gers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to improved means for supporting and guiding sliding or rolling doors, windows, or shutters which are adjacent to the angles of buildings, railway-cars, and other structures, the principal object of the invention being to provide means whereby the door or window may be opened by moving it edgewise toward and against the adjajacent angle of the wall without swinging it inwardly, thereby enabling it to be opened without encroaching upon the room or space adjacent to or inclosed by the walls.

This invention is herein shown as applied to one of the side doors of a street-car vestibule, the end wall of which is usually of a semicircular or semipolygonal form. In this casethe door is shown to be so fitted and support-ed as to be moved from its opening edgewise closely along the adjacent angle of the end wall of the vestibule. By this arrangement the door may easily be opened even when the vestibule is filled with passengers without crowding them aside against the controller or against each other.

Figure 1 of the drawings is aside view, looking from the inside of the vestibule of the car, of a door tted and mounted in accordance with my present invention, showing it in its closed position. Fig. 2 is an edge View of the door of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is aplan view in section taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, showing the guiding means for the lower lower portion of the door. Fig. 4 is a plan view in section, taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 1, showing the door and its swiveling hangers and the supporting track-rail, on which'the rolls of those hangers rest. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view corresponding with a portion of Fig. 4, showing the door in its open position. Fig. 6 is a plan view, and Fig. 7 a side view, of my preferred means for guiding and steadying the lower portion of the door. Fig. 8 is an edge view, Fig. 9 a plan view, and Fig. 10 a front View, of my preferred means for centralizing and steadying the bottom end of the door at its closing edge. Fig. 11 is a plan view, and Fig. l2 is a side view, of my improved swiveling door-hanger, while Fig. 13 is an edge view in vertical longitudinal section, taken through the center line of the hanger of Fig. 12, showing that hanger, its roller, and the track upon which the roller is supported. Fig. 14 is an end view looking from the adjacent lower end of the hanger of Fig. 12. Fig. 15 is a plan view showing a portion of the door in its open position with its guiding-bracket and showing also my improved means whereby the door is retained in its open position, and whereby it is prevented from rattling.

The door D is provided with the hangers, (designated in a general way by H,) the details of which are best shown in Figs. 11 to 14, inclusive, consisting of the door-plate 1, the swivel 2, and the sheave 3. The doorplate l is provided with suitable lugs 4, which enter the wood of the door and serve to prevent sidewise displacement of the plate with relation to the door, the plate being secured to the door by means of screws. The upper end of the plate is provided with alug 5, which is bored to receive the round stem 6 of the swivel 2, which, after passing through its bearing in the door-plate 1, is provided with a nut or collar '7, so fitted thereon as to allow of the rotary movement of the swivel with relation to the door-plate.

The sheave 3 is fitted to rotate upon a stud 8 of the swivel 2, being retained laterally thereon by means of a washer and split pin, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. The sheave is deeply grooved, as shown in the latter figure, so as to enable it to set well down over the track-rail 9, in order that the sides of the grooves of the sheave, by engaging with the corresponding sides of the track-rail, may cause the swivel to turn in its seat in the door-plate 1, so as to enable the sheave to aline itself with and follow the windings of the track-rail. ranged immediately over and substantially in line with the axis of the swivel, as shown in Fig. 13, the upper surface of the flange 2 of the swivel extending immediately beneath the track-rail, so as to prevent the door from being lifted far enough to allow the sheave That rail is preferably ar- IOO to be disengaged from the rail, it being therefore necessary to'slide the sheave and its swivel endwise upon the track-rail in assembling them to place. v

. The track-rail is preferably attached to a projecting molding or bead along J(he top of the doorway and along the adjacent side of the vestibule, that track running therefore substantially parallel with the doorway and curving with the adjacent angle thereof, as shown in Fig. 4. The hangers are attached at the top of the door, preferably at the opposite edges thereof, as shown in Fig. 1, so that as the door is pushed toward the left from the closed position shown in Fig. 1 the left-hand hanger will in following along its track-rail follow the curve of that rail at the corner angle of the vestibule, running then parallel with the side of that angle, shown in Fig. 4, until it reaches the position shown in Fig. 5. As the leading opening end of the door thus follows its hanger along the Jtrackrail, the right-hand hanger, upon the closing or following edge of the door, will be gradually turned upon its swivel, the sheave alining itself to its adjacent portion of the trackrail. The result is that the two edges of the door are each carried as closely as possible to their adjacent angles of the vestibule, thus encroaching as little as possible upon the space within the vestibule and at no time encroaching upon that space to a greater extent than is shown by the dot-and-dash position of the door in Fig. 4.

The door should be so iitted that when in its closed position it lies close against the door-Opening, being thereby practically tight, its forward edge fitting into a rabbet in the doorway, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. As a means of closing the joint at the top of the door the latter may be provided with a molding 10, extending from one hanger to the other and projecting above the top of the door, so as to cover the joint between the top of the door and the track-rail.

As a means for centralizing and steadying the leading bottom cornerof the door in itsv closed position, as shown iu Fig. 1, I employ a socket or shoe 11, screwed to the threshold. This shoe is best shown in Figs. S, 9, and 10 and is of a box-like form, open at the top and at one end, the sides of the box adjacent to the open end being beveled or rounded, as shown in Fig. 9, to allow of the easy entrance of the door, even when the latter may be swung somewhat out of theperpendicular. The shoe extends beyond the rabbet, so as to centralize the door with that rabbet and guide it to its seat therein.

As a means for guiding the lower portion of the door so as to retain it in an approximately perpendicular position during its opening and closing movements and preventing it from swinging away from the side of the vestibule I have provided a guiding-rail 13 and a guiding-bracket 12, the latter being attached at the rearward edge of the door, well down toward the bottom thereof, as shown in Fig. 1. The construction and arrangement of this guiding-bracket is best shown in Figs. 6 and 7, it being preferably provided with flanges arranged to passI on opposite sides of the door, the bracket being secured to the door by means of screws. rlhe bracket is also provided with an outwardly and downwardly extending arm l2, leaving a sufficient space between the arm and the door to allow room for the guiding rail 13, as shown in Fig. 7.

The rail 13 is attached at its ends to the wall of the `vestibule, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, below the track-rail 9, being located at a suitable distance from the floor to enable it to be engaged by the guiding-bracket 12. In cases where the guiding-bracket 12 is located at a point substantially directly below one of the swi\f*eling hangers of the ,door the curvature or course of the lower guiding-rail 13 should be substantially the same as that of the upper track-rail 9 in order to retain the door in a vertical position at all times during its openin g and closing movement, but where that guiding bracket is located elsewhere than directly beneath one of these swiveling hangers the contour of the guiding-rail must be correspondingly modified.

As a means for retaining the door in its open position securely and preventing the rattling noise due to the vibrations of the car I have provided an elastic catch 14, best shown in Fig. 15. That catch consists of a spring havingone end riveted or otherwise rigidly attached to the guiding rail, the opposite end being bent inwardly to a suitable distance from the rail and having a curve or hook formed in the end, as shown in Fig. 15, over which the arm 12a is carried as the door is pushed to its fully-opened position, (shown iu the latter figure,) the catch 14 engaging the inner side of the arm and pressing the inner flange of the bracket iirmly against the track-rail 13, as shown in Fig. 7. In closing the door from this position it is released from the catch by giving the door a sharp pull, causing the arm 12fL to ride out of the depression of the catch, which springs t0- ward the guiding-rail to a sufficient extent to allow the arm to pass. The arm 12L and the adjacent flange of the bracket 12 may be provided with rollers for engaging with the track- 4rail 13, if deemed desirable, but if the door is properly balanced, as herein shown, I do not consider such rollers to be necessary or desirable.

Any suitable means may be employed for locking or otherwise fastening the door in the position shown in Fig. 1, such locking or fastening means forming no part of my present invention.

The axis of 'the stud 8, on which the sheave is mounted, is preferably located in the plane of the axis of the stem 6 of the swivel 2, and that stem should be tted so as to turn easily in its bearing in the door-plate 1 in order IOO IIO

that t-he swivel may turn readily under the control of the track-rail engaging with the deep groove in the sheave 2. With the bearings thus adapted for easy movement the door may be as smoothly and easily pushed along its curving track-rail as though that rail were straight.

The meeting fianges la and 2a of the doorplate and of the swivel, respectively, are preferably made of the full length and width of their respective members in order to present broad bearing-surfaces for the base of the swivel, thus preventing all liability to cramp as the swivel is turned to its various positions, as suggested in Fig. 1l, and permitting of the use of a relatively short bearing for the swivel.

The track-rail 9 may be bent to any desired curvature in either direction, as the swiveling hangers will aline themselves with and follow the track-rail through the most devious windings that are likely to occur in practice.

The socket or shoe ll may be utilized as a stop for the open position of the door, as shown in Fig. 3, serving to hold it against adjacent to the doorway thereof, a supporting-trackway forsaid hanger and doorlocated above the doorway, and extended to conform to the angular or curved wall of the vestibule, whereby the door may be opened and passed along said wall, means for guiding the lower portion of the door, consisting of a guidingrail attached to the wall above and away from the floor of the vestibule, arranged substantially parallel and coextensive with the desii-ed path of the door, and a guiding-bracket attached at or near the rearward edge of the door and engaging with the guidingrail throughout the entire movement of the door, whereby the suspended door may be maintained in position without encroaching upon the door or upon the doorway, substantially as described.

2. In combination with a sliding door of the class specified, a centralizing shoe or socket 1l therefor, secured upon the threshold of the doorway, provided with upwardly-extending iianges engaging the front edge and the sides of the door when in its closed position, the side flanges being beveled to allow of centralizing the door when being pushed to its closed position, substantially as described.

CHAS. F. AGARD.

Vitnesses:

rW. H. HoNIss,

JENNIE NELLIS. 

